Explosions

News about Explosions, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

May. 15, 2014

Antigovernment protests break out across Turkey, as hopes begin to fade for hundreds of coal miners still trapped underground in a hellish explosion; victims' families are demanding answers in what is emerging as perhaps the worst industrial accident in the country’s history. MORE

May. 14, 2014

Explosion in coal mine in western Turkey kills more than 160 miners and leaves at least 200 other trapped underground; rescue teams are working to save trapped miners. MORE

May. 10, 2014

Investigators say deadly jail explosion in the Florida Panhandle appears to have been caused by natural gas but willl not specify whether a leak may have been to blame; April 30 fire killed two people and injured more than 100 others. MORE

May. 2, 2014

Gas explosion rips through jail in Pensacola, Fla, killing two inmates and injuring about 150 others; jail has been flooded by rainwater, and fire marshals are investigating whether the downpours led to the gas leak. MORE

Apr. 30, 2014

Boat that Palestinian and foreign activists were planning to use to challenge the Israeli-imposed naval blockade of the Gaza Strip is badly damaged by an explosion in Gaza harbor; organizers say they suspect sabotage. MORE

Apr. 25, 2014

Over half of the households in buildings affected by explosion in East Harlem have not been able to return home, more than a month after the accident; question of who is responsible for inspecting and remediating apartments affected by the blast remains at issue. MORE

Apr. 23, 2014

Federal investigators determine that lack of oversight and regulations at the local, state and federal levels contributed to deadly 2013 fertilizer plant explosion that devastated West, rural Texas town. MORE

Apr. 12, 2014

Carmen Quinones, who was critically injured in a gas explosion in East Harlem in March, is scheduled to leave Mount Sinai Medical Center; at news conference at hospital, Quinones hugs and thanks six of the New York City firefighters who carried her out of the collapsed building. MORE

Apr. 2, 2014

Pacific Gas and Electric is charged with 12 federal felony counts involving safety violations linked to a 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in the San Francisco Bay Area. MORE

Apr. 1, 2014

Parts of several pipes will be tested at a laboratory in Washington, DC, as part of investigation into the deadly gas explosion in East Harlem; investigators have finished work at the scene of the March 12 blast on Park Avenue near 116th Street, which destroyed two buildings and killed eight people. MORE

Mar. 28, 2014

Pacific Gas & Electric announces that it expects to face federal criminal charges for its role in a fatal gas pipeline explosion in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010; blast killed eight people, injured dozens of others and sparked a fireball that laid waste to 38 homes. MORE

Mar. 25, 2014

Editorial contends Congress can make New York City and other cities safer if it hastens effort to repair and replace old, leaking natural-gas pipelines nationwide; notes explosion in East Harlem can serve as a catalyst for change, and Congress must act before forces of apathy reassert themselves after this latest tragedy. MORE

Mar. 24, 2014

Gas explosion in East Harlem highlights dangers posed by some 6,302 aging pipes that transport natural gas throughout New York City, and similar systems in cities nationwide; leaks in pipes are common, numbering in the thousands every year, but replacing the aging network is a daunting task that would cost as much as $10 billion; New York State regulators have ordered Con Edison to step up its replacement schedule nonetheless. MORE

Mar. 23, 2014

Urban Garden Center in East Harlem, subject of July 29, 2012, Neighborhood Joint column, was damaged by explosion that ripped through neighborhood in March; scores of people have called or stopped by to offer help. MORE

Mar. 20, 2014

Mother and brother of Mayumi Nakamura, 34, who was killed in gas explosion in East Harlem that destroyed two buildings, are prepared to carry her ashes back to Japan; Nakamura was one of five women and three men who died in blast, some, like her, far from their homelands of Greece, Mexico and Japan. MORE

Mar. 19, 2014

Eight victims of gas explosion in East Harlem are returning for last time to their family and friends; bodies of three will be sent to Mexico, one to Greece and one likely to Japan; those who died closer to home will be remembered at funeral services around New York City. MORE

Mar. 19, 2014

National Transportation Safety Board investigators examining scene of deadly gas explosion in East Harlem say they have identified a leak in an eight-inch cast-iron and plastic gas main under Park Avenue between 116th and 117th Streets. MORE

Mar. 18, 2014

Blast that leveled two East Harlem buildings and killed at least eight people has reverberated through a South Bronx neighborhood less than two miles away, where an eerily similar accident occurred nearly 27 years ago; in 1987, an explosion knocked down a one-story bodega and an adjoining four-story tenement building near East 141st Street, killing six and injuring more than two dozen others. MORE

Mar. 18, 2014

Police identify the final victim who was killed in a gas explosion that leveled two buildings in East Harlem; Mayumi Nakamura lived in the building at 1646 Park Avenue, in apartment No 4; she is last to be identified of the eight people who were killed in the explosion. MORE

Mar. 17, 2014

Residents of tightly-knit East Harlem community mourn eight victims who died in gas explosion that left two buildings in the neighborhood in rubble; local churches devote their Sunday services to disaster, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and wife Chirlane McCray speak to two congregations that lost worshipers in the deadly explosion. MORE

Mar. 16, 2014

Firefighters recover crumpled, but largely intact, Bible belonging to Spanish Christian Church among debris of one of two buildings in East Harlem destroyed by gas explosion. MORE

Mar. 15, 2014

Police officers at scene of building explosion in East Harlem rescue 15-year-old Oscar Hernandez from wreckage, rare bit of joyful news to emerge from devastating incident; Hernandez's mother and sister were both found dead in rubble after his rescue. MORE

Mar. 15, 2014

Fire and safety officials begin investigating cause of explosion in East Harlem that leveled two buildings and left eight people dead, with preliminary findings showing that combustible levels of gas had been detected underground near the site; New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says that city would help find prolonged shelter for dozens of families displaced by the blast. MORE

Mar. 14, 2014

Upstairs residents of the century-old East Harlem buildings that were leveled in gas explosion had close ties to a piano shop and a church, with lives entwined as in bygone era; tenements had changed little in neighborhood that has been rapidly modernizing. MORE

Mar. 14, 2014

Firefighters and emergency personnel dig deeply into the wreckage of two buildings in East Harlem leveled in a powerful explosion, looking for survivors; search by Con Edison workers for cause of a gas leak, which a preliminary investigation indicates touched off the collapse, continues; death toll rises to eight. MORE

Mar. 14, 2014

Explosion at two buildings in East Harlem is by far the worst disaster New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, council member from the district since 2006, has had to face since entering city politics; Mark-Viverito's prominence in coverage of the explosion is a coming-out moment of sorts for the city's Hispanic community. MORE

Mar. 13, 2014

Explosion levels two buildings on 116th Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan, killing at least three people and wounding at least two dozen more; nine occupants remain missing as rescue crews continue to search through rubble in East Harlem; blast, which city officials say was touched off by a gas leak, comes less than 20 minutes after building residents reported a smell that had been detectable since night before. MORE

Mar. 13, 2014

Relatives of people missing after an explosion in East Harlem that leveled two adjoining residential buildings are making phone calls and checking hospitals, trying to keep hope alive; six people are known to have died in blast. MORE

Mar. 13, 2014

Gas explosion that shook East Harlem neighborhood flattened two buildings that had been fixtures on their block since 1910; two vintage tenements destroyed after blast had housed storefront church, piano store, and 15 modest apartments, mostly occupied by immigrants. MORE

Mar. 13, 2014

Con Edison reports that the only sign of trouble it received before an explosion leveled two residential buildings in East Harlem was a call from a customer who had been smelling gas the previous day but only called 20 minutes before the blast; company is proceeding as if the destruction resulted from a gas leak, but officials say they have not yet seen evidence of one; Con Ed survey in February of the main involved revealed no leaks. MORE

Mar. 13, 2014

Building collapse in East Harlem following suspected gas explosion trapped people in rubble and just as quickly sent residents into street to help; destruction of buildings, 1644 and 1646 Park Avenue between 116th and 117th Streets, was instantaneous, as was reaction from neighbors and passers-by. MORE

Mar. 5, 2014

Gas explosion at condominium complex in Ewing Township, New Jersey, kills one woman and damages dozens of homes; utility company PSE&G says cause of explosion is under investigation. MORE

Feb. 11, 2014

Explosion at New Hampshire Ball Bearings factory in Peterborough injures at least 15 people, but none of the injuries appear to be life-threatening. MORE

Jan. 30, 2014

Gas explosion and fire at house on Staten Island injures three people, one critically, and forces evacuation of more than a dozen homes. MORE

Jan. 14, 2014

Explosion in southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou kills 14 people and injures seven. MORE

Jan. 3, 2014

Officials investigating an explosion in Prague that killed Jamal al-Jamal, Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic, find illegal weapons in search of the Palestinian mission; police say likely cause of the blast was a security device on a safe that had apparently been moved from the old Palestinian mission to the new mission. MORE

Dec. 31, 2013

North Dakota officials say at least 10 tank cars burst into flames after a train carrying crude oil struck another train about a mile outside the town of Casselton; say accident caused at least five powerful explosions, but no injuries were reported. MORE

Aug. 2, 2013

Pres Obama orders federal agencies to review safety rules at chemical facilities in response to April 2013 explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant that killed 15 people. MORE

Jul. 12, 2013

Improper use of aerosal insecticide foggers, which are highly flammable, causes explosion inside a Chinatown beauty parlor, leaving three people badly hurt; building catches fire and partially collapses. MORE

Jun. 27, 2013

Senate hearing about continuing inquiry into April 2013 explosion at fertilizer plant in West, Tex, will likely raise question of whether federal investigations of industrial disasters should focus first on figuring out what happened or finding evidence of crime. MORE

Jun. 25, 2013

One worker is killed in explosion in concrete grain silo in northwestern Indiana. MORE

Jun. 23, 2013

Federal Emergency Management Agency decision to decline to give Texas officials full amount of disaster aid requested after deadly fertilizer plant explosion in town of West has some asking why federal government has to pay when Texas has plentiful state and local finances; disaster and emergency response experts say federal officials made the wisest, if not the most popular, decision. MORE

Jun. 15, 2013

One person is killed and five injured in chemical plant explosion in Donaldsonville, La, one day after another fatal explosion at chemical plant in neighboring town of Geismar; two explosions do not appear related. MORE

Federal investigators will examine whether pressurized gas played a role in the massive blast that followed the derailment of a train carrying crude oil through West Virginia this week, the U.S. Transportation Department said on Thursday.

A train carrying more than 100 tankers of crude oil derailed about 30 miles southeast of Charleston on Monday, sending at least one into the Kanawha River, igniting at least 14 and setting off a house fire, officials said.

January 30, 2015, Friday

Cities are trying to clamp down as some amateur alchemists who turn their kitchens and basements into labs end up blowing up their homes while using flammable chemicals to extract potent drops of a marijuana concentrate.